The discussion on Thursday regarding eugenics and the welfare system I believe was intriguing and brought on some interesting conversation that has obviously carried over to the blog. I know everyone has a lot of different opinions and stereotypes about welfare and this makes the discussion more difficult when there are predisposed notions about what it means to be on welfare and what kind of people opt out to use this system as a means of survival. As with many other situations I would not like to judge welfare on the stereotypes that I know about it, rather I would like to think that this system may need some adjustment just as many other assistance systems need.
I do not believe that eugenics would have eliminated the welfare system because of the many environmental factors that influence the way a person lives. If eugenics was implemented to eliminate all of the "bad" and "undesirable" traits from a society this doesn't mean that there still wouldn't be a some kind of lower class of people. Maybe considering today's society they would be higher than the lower class that exists today. But, considering completely different circumstances means that this entire situation would change and therefore new stereotypes and assumptions would be made about those that are considered lesser. I believe that the way our society has worked there has always been a scapegoat and therefore eugenics would not rid us of this construct, but just give us a new and different one.
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